I'm out

Well, that was a pretty messy last hand. But before I get to that.. basically for 4 levels I got hardly any playable hands. A few small pairs that went no where, got reraised off a few steals, but generally played very tight until the last hand. Was blinded down to about 21k with nothing very eventful happening. No big pots, just a pretty quick blind structure and high antes. With blinds at 600/300 and a 7 ante I raised to 2000 with 9d7d in second position. This was the loosest raise I had made all tournament and figured I'd just take the blinds. Every hand I won before I had showed down AA, KK or AK. Big blind, a pretty bad internet player who got very lucky before calls. Flop is 843 one diamond. He bets out 2k I raise to 7k to represent an overpair. He calls. Turn comes 6d to give me an open ended straight draw as well as a flush draw. He checks, and think for a bit then jam in the rest of my chips. He hums and haws and almost folds then calls with A5o! Ugh.. river comes a 6 and I one again fail to make a big draw in a big live tournament. I should probably learn but it's probably too late for me to mend my ways. That's it for me for now, time to enjoy the rest of the vacation.

Holy crap

First break.. with starting stacks of 20,000 chips, I'm at about 44k. On the 10th hand of the tournament, managed to double up with AA vs KK when we got it all in on the T high flop. Then proceeded to pick off the guy with 88 vs AQ a few hands later so I was the early chip leader and knocked out the first guy of the event. Picked up KK twice, AA once, AK and that's basically all the hands I've played.

Table 12, seat 6

The few moments before a poker tournament reminds me a lot of exam time. Many young, boisterous people gather around the entrance trying to convince themselves that they know what they're doing and perhaps intimidate their peers. This is especially the case here were the age required to play is only 18 or 19 years old, versus 21 in the US so they stereotypical internet pro is disproportionately represented here. In the lobbies where wireless access is available you can't look around without seeing someone multi-tabling poker on their laptop at all hours of the day.

The poker room this year takes up the grand ballroom where over 40 tables are set up to accomodate the tournament and side games. Not quite the spectacle that was the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas but still quite impressive. A quick glance over the starting table list reveals no one recognizable at my table, so hopefully I'll have a fairly soft table. My goal this year is to hit a flush draw and not bluff off my chips when I miss.

The poker express

So the adventure begins again. I'm just about to board the flight for the bahamas which is sending at least a dozen poker hopefuls on their way to fame and fortune. The departure area is full of bad beat stories, suckouts and tales of huge pots. Defending champion steve paul-ambrose is also here, taking a westjet flight like a true balla. I'm playing on the first day of the tournament tomorrow but it's unlikely I'll be able to post live updates since the blackberry probably doesn't work down there There will probably be coverage on pokerwire.com and cardplayer.com as well as the official pokerstarsblog.com so perhaps if I get knocked out by someone famous ill be mentioned.